thehammerdog

The Noah Brand & others have gone to a new form of brake design and it appears very cool.
Anyone own a bike with it and where is this going for the layman.Greipels bike is very cool.


https://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...ah-fast_227521

Ice41000

Solution to non-existing problem.

ThinLine

The new Trek Madone line is using under bottom bracket design integration.

Bob Dopolina 

Ben there done that...

It mostly leads to crappy brake response due to the convoluted cable routings.

If it could done very well then maybe.

kv501

I don't think it's being billed as a solution to a problem. The fact is, if something looks cool, roadies will buy it. Period.

island rider

In order to ensure that I will buy a bike next year, they need to come out with the latest and greatest new advancement. Integrated Seatmast, been there, aero frame, done that... oh well... WAIT, they moved the brakes? That's ...well... new. Now i have to go out and buy that frame.

DGlenday

I don't agree - and here's why:

There have been hundreds of "solutions to non-existent problems" over the past decades. Collectively, they amount to far better bike technology.

Ride a 1950s bike, then a 1970s bike to see what I mean. Then ride a 1990s bike (remember the days before carbon?) bd then a modern bike. All of those small 'unnecessary' changed have a cumulative effect.

DGlenday

Another brake 'solution' is to put the rear braked at the bottom of the frame, on the chain-stays, to make them more aero. Interesting...

pallen

Is that Campy EPS?

echotraveler

IMO integration is positive. But will take some time before integrating components and frame start stablishing standards.

This industry knows that users love to upgrade. Non interchangebale parts are a dead end st. Establishing a standard will require a lot of trial and error, and many screwed over clients....like di2 owners, the seco d generation of di2 ignores their trust... Now they have to buy a complete set of everything if any upgrade is desired.

sbxx1985 

Record EPS.

And the Campy SRM, Deda, Boras. That bike is sweet.

rooftest

Had a mountain bike with that in the '80's. Dislike - big time.

Ice41000

Bikes and equipment got better in time. Integrated brakes are better in which way?
All I see is they will get dirtier and harder to reach to work on.
Aerodynamic gains are basicaly non-existant.
It is just a hype.

znomit

What the heck are the fixie hipsters going to do if this "no brakes" catches on with the lycra crowd?

PS, hydraulics are on the way to sort those ugly cables Bob

EdIsMe

The integrated brake solution has a lot more downsides than it has upsides.

In a long time trial or triathlon, it makes a lot of sense to have more aerodynamic efficiency at the cost of performance or serviceability than it does on the road or in a pack of riders.

I would rather see a non-integrated brake fine-tuned to be more aero. (www.tririg.com) has a really neat brake they call the Omega that is super light as well as "aero." Other manufacturers have designs that attempt the same goal; TRP, Eggbrake, etc.

EdIsMe

Wrong.

Bob Ross

That new Ridley Noah definitely looks like a badass bike, but as someone who is already a complete klutz when it comes to servicing my own bike I'd be skeptical of my own abilities to perform routine maintenance/adjustments on those integrated carbon calipers.

Bacciagalupe

Actually, I'd say a better way to put it is that there have been numerous (not "hundreds") of incremental improvements.

However, today's bicycles -- even mid-range models -- are probably very close to their optimal configurations. There is a finite limit to improvements in aerodynamics, stiffness and weight that can be achieved.

There were huge improvements between the bikes of the 1950s and 1990s, moderate improvements from 1990 to 2000, minor improvements from 2000 to 2010, and I expect we will see minute improvements from 2010 to 2020. We'll see high-end advances like electronic shifting and CF trickle down and an emphasis on specialization. Meanwhile, manufacturers are already reduced to bragging about saving seconds rather than minutes on a 40k TT.

In this case, integrated brakes are a specialization that work fine for pros who have full-time mechanics and use a frame for a single season. For an amateur, they're a PITA that offers a negligible aerodynamic improvement, requires more maintenance, and would be very problematic if the brakes required replacement parts.

Psimet2001 

That's a mech to hyd conversion. Shimano and SRAM both have hyd integrated into road lever setups coming out this fall to next year. Starting with cross, but all road will eventually be disc or hyd calipers.....so....there you go.

Banzai

I am starting to DESPISE all these new "standards" that keep coming out. And for what it's worth, I think Trek has lost their collective minds with this silly brake-behind-the-bottom-bracket business. I don't really understand how a brake caliper (a very small component) tucked behind the seattube and seatstays, is such a problem for the aerodynamics of the bike.

This looks like they're being different just to be different, and Shimano (who once pushed the industry towards a remarkable degree of compatibility) is sadly playing along.

escarpment

I think we have hit the bell curve for the effectiveness of aero and carbon and new bike technology. Dont get me wrong, I am all for the technological advancement of the products we use and am excited for what the future holds. There are just so many iterations in how a bike can be set up but they all achieve, relativity, the same thing: propulsion of a bike.

rooftest

Hmm. Probably stops almost as good as cable brakes on aluminum rims.

cyccommute 

There's been lots of missteps as well. See U-brakes, aluminum frames that use the same size tube as steel frames, Viscount aluminum forks, injection molded bicycles, rod brakes, Delta brakes, etc.

Go find an old u-brake equipped mountain bike. Ride it, preferably in the rain. Get back to us as to why placing a brake on the chainstay is a bad idea.

EdIsMe

I would be interested in seeing some hyd integrated levers. Would be interesting to see hyd shifters/derailleurs as well.

In theory, hydrolic is just better all around; more durable, lighter, better performing.

I wonder what a disc-like brake built into the flanges of a hub would be like...

StanSeven

People say this for years and years but improvements keep coming - aero frames and aero wheels at reasonable prices knock more than a few seconds off 40K TTs. Take a look at recent Velo tests. Electronic shifting, 11 speeds, CF frames and components as well as other parts could get bikes down to 12 lbs or so if UCI allowed it, etc. all are continous improvments